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The Bad Batch (2016)
Disclaimer: I didn't read over my writing but still worth a read. Sorry in advance.
The cinematography is impressive and the music matches the varying moods throughout the film but these contribute to this film ending up just being an hour and fifty-six minute long music video. The story lacks tremendously but this will not be known till after Arlen kills Maria in the desert.
After the killing, Arlen seems to convince the audience as if she cares for the little girl but then decides to experiment with a drug and not keep an eye on the girl at a night party. The little girl becomes lost and found by the Dream, but this is a poor way to keep the story going because Arlen revealed no addictive traits nor did she express any interest in drugs before this, so she experiments when she has a responsibly? It's not very convincing, just seems as if the screenwriter didn't know where to take the story next. But, without this careless decision, the story would've fallen flat sooner.
Another bad aspect of the story is the distance between the cannibal area and Comfort, basically the desert between the two locations. This is important because some characters seem to reach one location from the other sooner than other characters, so it seems. The huge flaw isn't identified till the Miami Man and Arlen are within the cave because supposedly the motorcycle couldn't get them to Comfort that same day even though the motorcycle came with a container with extra gas. This was not understandable because Hermit (Jim Carrey's character) seemed to navigate just fine while pushing a cart around the desert. It took a wandering man (another non con vincible plot device) to find them and take Arlen back to Comfort but during the time she was with the Miami Man, she seemed to begin liking him, no reason to pick on this because attraction is different for everyone. Why is this a bad aspect of the story? Solely because if they would have never stopped Arlen would have never gained feelings for him which would have led her into not wanting to find the little girl even though she was threatened to death but if she is within Comfort, could the Miami Man really cross the border to kill her? No, Comfort has gunmen who would have shot him. This was another way to keep the story going, which wasn't a good one because they shouldn't have stopped for rest because they have a motorcycle, was the Miami Man not that much in a rush to find his daughter?
The next flaw shortly arrives after Arlen is easily invited within Dream's home, which again not very convincing because she is offered a room without any relationship being established before hand. Comfort is full of very poor people and none of them thought of the idea of asking to come inside and spend time with Dream? Would he had offered them a room to stay in? And if Arlen was offered only because she was a woman, would another woman been offered a room and possibly the mother of a child? I strongly don't believe so. Again the screenwriter had to forcibly move the story along that was doomed after the beginning. The Dream is the head of Comfort and he seems to not be even a little skeptical about inviting some girl that just turned up at his home after he found a little girl? Another bad plot device because this was the only way for Arlen to get the little girl back. Very unrealistic because the Dream knows the state of his people within Comfort, why would he trust them to come inside his home?
Ultimately the picture ends decently, but their is no story. No purpose, no reason behind any motives of any characters except for the cannibals wanting more human meat. Never quite clear to how this world even became to be. What an audience member is left with is just displaying images in front of music. If the Academy Awards had a best music video category, it would be wise for one to place a bet on this one winning, but as a film, which has a job to tell a story, Bad Batch falls completely flat on it's face.